Entries from August 2009

I thought we’d come to the end of this second series of “Old Maid” decks; but I’d forgotten this one. It’s a “Built-Rite Toy”: as usual, no date or other data. All of the subjects in this version are children: Fickle Frankie, Rollicking Ruth, Fancy Nancy, and other lively kids. I’ve picked Scary Harry. He seems […]

There are plenty of ways to make a point quickly and emphatically, but few are as economical as a good interjection. Compared to the expressions one never runs across anymore except in Shakespeare, eighteenth century novels, and Mad Libs, most recent examples are pretty unmusical, uninspired, and linguistically dull: “wow,” “cool,” “awesome,” “Jesus.” This extends […]

This edition of “Animal Rummy” is an Arrco “Pla-Mor” game: “Ten true to life animals of the woodlands make the all-time favorite game of Rummy more fun to play. The beaver, the bear, the squirrel, and even the skunk are mixed and matched in this new version of a great old game.” I’ve selected the bear: nice […]

I think my high school offered one basic course in psychology, which I did not take. Surely it dealt in stripped-down basics – the classification of emotions, some de-sexualized Freudian theory, and maybe a little Jung thrown in for the artsy kids. I’d like to think, if I’d had the opportunity to take a class […]

This “Old Maid” was published in 2001 by Cardinal Industries. I’m intrigued by the fact that Piano Pete seems to be playing inside the piano. Is he performing a piece using extended techniques? Or is he simply tuning — in black tie? At any rate, it’s a bold and bright design. And here’s the Old Maid. This, by the way, […]

To most of us, the name “Tiny Tim” recalls the late Herbert Khaury, he of the uke and falsetto. We may also think of the plaintive tot in Dickens, or — if smitten with old comic strips — Stanley Link’s miniscule hero of the ’30s. But there was another, now forgotten, yet once a familiar […]